2000-07-29 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- Neither First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton nor any senior White House official was involved in seeking hundreds of confidential FBI background files about Reagan and Bush administration appointees, according to a report released yesterday by a special three-judge panel.

The panel also released a report concluding that former White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum did not testify falsely about the hiring of Craig Livingstone as head of the Office of Personnel Security before Congress in June 1996. Nussbaum said then that he had not discussed the matter with the first lady.

The reports by independent counsel Robert W. Ray also said there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Anthony Marceca, a low-level employee on loan to the White House Office of Personnel Security, knowingly made false statements when he requested the FBI reports early in President Clinton's first term.

Ray had announced last March that he would not seek criminal charges against anyone in what came to be known as the FBI Filegate matter. His final reports on the issues were released yesterday after those involved in the probe had a chance to attach their responses.

Marceca had said he sought the files for the purpose of determining who ought to have access to the White House. His contention was false, the report concluded, because he asked for files of numerous people who no longer worked in the White House or required access.

But in making his request, Marceca -- described as inexperienced and poorly supervised -- relied blindly on a Secret Service list that included both "active" and "inactive" pass holders, rather than deliberately seeking derogatory information on political opponents, the report concluded.

The controversy flared up after congressional Republicans discovered in June 1996 that the Clinton administration had requested the confidential FBI file of Billy Ray Dale, former head of the White House travel office, who had been fired. The following day, the White House returned three boxes to the FBI that contained hundreds of confidential background files.

"The Secret Service provided critical erroneous information that confused the issue and caused Congress and the public to leap to some understandable but ultimately unsupportable conclusions," Ray's report said.

Ray determined that portions of Marceca's testimony before Congress were false, but he said he was declining to prosecute him because those statements were "insubstantial."

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., denounced the decision, saying that if people are allowed to mislead Congress without being punished, the problem will "only get worse."

"Anthony Marceca lied to Congress, and it's disappointing that he won't be punished," Burton said. "Perjury and selective memory loss in congressional investigations are a growing problem."

Marceca's lawyers, Robert Muse and Robert Weinberg, said their client "is pleased" that no criminal prosecution is warranted and noted that the allegations arose in a "highly charged political context."

Larry Klayman, chairman of Judicial Watch, a conservative Washington watchdog group, criticized Ray for reaching conclusions without considering information in lost White House e-mails, which will be the subject of a federal court hearing in Washington next week.